CRIKC Model Accepted by Government of India

Chandigarh, January 21, 2019: Chandigarh Region Innovation and Knowledge Cluster (CRIKC), is a conglomerate of Universities, National Research Laboratories and Industries, for the promotion of knowledge and innovations in and around Chandigarh region. The cluster has evolved as a registered society (under Society Registration Act, 1860) and is now being adopted by the office of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) of Govt. of India (GoI) as a prototype, for the creation of ‘Knowledge Clusters’ on similar lines, throughout the country. The major emphasis of ‘Knowledge Clusters’ is to promote industry-academia interactions and sharing of instruments and other facilities belonging to National Research Laboratories and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) by the public and the private sectors. The office of PSA is tasked with advising the Prime Minister of India on matters related to Science, Technology and Innovations (STI). PSA also chairs the Prime Ministers’ Science Technology and Innovation Council (PM-STIAC), comprising of select NITI Aayog members and heads of major R&D funding agencies of Government of India including Department of Science & Technology (DST), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Council of Agriculture (ICAR) and Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The office of PSA convenes a monthly meeting of PM-STIAC, which is presided over by the Prime Minister. Recently, in one of the PM-STIAC’s meetings, it was agreed upon to adopt CRIKC as a model and create ‘Knowledge Clusters’ comprising of educationists, scientists and industrialists, in various cities of the country (Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Lucknow Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, etc.). This development was an outcome of visit of Prof. K Vijay Raghavan, PSA to GoI, to CRIKC institutes including Panjab University in July, 2018 to understand the CRIKC model. He was not only appreciative of the synergism between the CRIKC institutes but also lauded the self-sustainability of the CRIKC model. The office of PSA has set the ball rolling, by convening meetings of concerned stakeholders from industry and academia in Pune and Kolkata, in the month of January 2019. The Pune meeting was held on January 7th at IISER-Pune, while the Kolkata meeting was held on January 17th at S N Bose Centre for Basic Sciences. Both the meetings were chaired by Dr ArabindaMitra (Scientific Secretary, office of PSA). Prof. RupinderTewari (Founder Co-ordinator, CRIKC and Chief-Coordinator, DST-Centre for Policy Research at Panjab University, Chandigarh), the key speaker at both these meetings, highlighted the genesis, activities and future roadmap of CRIKC. The participants commended the ‘Industry-Academia’ activities and ‘International Outreach Programme’ of CRIKC. The participants interacted with Founder and former President (CRIKC), Prof. Arun K Grover, via Skype. The setting up of committees for ‘Library Sharing’ and ‘Instruments Sharing’ by CRIKC institutes, introduced by Prof. Raj Kumar, Current President, CRIKC and Vice-Chancellor, Panjab University, Chandigarh were also appreciated during these meetings. Prof. Raj Kumar will soon be invited to the office of PSA for charting the future course of action of CRIKC. The second round of setting up of knowledge clusters are intended to be held at Hyderabad, Kanpur and Lucknow.